FullMetal Alchemist: The Leonhart Brothers
by SorceressKyrsty
Summary: He doesn't need a job. That's Squall Leonhart, the FullMetal Alchemist. He's been quite a celebrity down at Deling. They say he's a child progidy" FMA/FF8 crossover. FF8 chars replace the FMA ones. slightly diff storyline.


**FullMetal Alchemist: The Leonhart Brothers**

**This is a FMA-Final Fantasy VIII Crossover. It follows (mostly) to the FMA storyline, but FF8 characters replace most the characters.**

**Here's the list:**

_**Ed**_** is replaced by **_**Squall **_**(his nickname is Sal, pronounced Sol)**

_**Al **_**is replaced by **_**Lake**_**, a character I made up since Squall doesn't actually have a younger brother. (His nickname is **_**Lee**_

_**Trisha **_**(Ed and Al's Mum) is replaced by Squall's mother, **_**Raine Leonhart.**_

_**Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, Havoc, Fury, Brenda, the guy with the silver hair, Maes Hughes **_**and his wife**_** Gracia **_**are replaced by **_**Seifer Almasy, Quistis Trepe, Irvine Kinneas, Zell Dincht, Nida **_**(last name unknown) **_**Xu, Raijin and Fuijin respectively.**_

_**Scheiska **_**is replaced by **_**Selphie Tilmitt**_

**Ed and Al's Dad is replaced by **_**Laguna Loire.**_

_**Azumi, **_**Ed and Al's teacher, is replaced by **_**Edea, **_**because before she became a Sorceress she was a role-model to all the kids at the orphanage.**

_**Dr. Shaw Tucker **_**is replaced by **_**Dr. Odine **_**because they're both complete gits.**

_**Winry Rockbell **_**is replaced by a new character named **_**Armanai Lode.**_

_**Rose **_**is replaced by **_**Rinoa Heartily **_**( I know she should've replaced Winry, but Rinoa didn't grow up with Squall and she doesn't strike me as the mechanical type)**

_**Rose's **_**boyfriend **_**Kain **_**is replaced by (SORRY EVERYONE!!!) **_**Roy Mustang.**_

**I had to put some FMA characters in… did I miss anyone? If I have, I'd like to know.**

**Each chapter will be an episode long. And, the ending will be notably different to the real story, since though the ending was heart-felt, I want something different for Squall.**

**Let's just say that this ending is one that not many people are going to like.**

_I was reckless._

_Reckless and foolish. I ignored Matron's teachings. I disobeyed her directly. We found out exactly why she told us not do what we were thinking that night. It was that night our lives changed forever. That night that I learned that ten-year-olds shouldn't make foolish decisions. That's when I decided to become a State Alchemist._

_To help my brother, my only family, Lake._

**Prologue: To Challenge the Sun**

The hot sun bore down onto the hot, bright sand. It almost seemed like smoke was rising up from it. Walking through this sand was a teenage boy who looked like he was dressed for conditions opposite to that of the desert.

His brown hair hung partially in front of his face, but seemed to be brushed out of his eyes, which were stormy blue. He was dressed in a knee-length red jacket that hung over a black jacket with a fur collar. Underneath the half zipped up black jacket was a white cotton singlet shirt. His pants were black leather, with red and black boots that came half way up his shin. A deep red belt with small metal circles as decoration held his pants up. Hanging from a clip on his pants was a silver chain that followed into his pocket and around his neck was a silver necklace in the shape of a lion, the same as the symbol on the back of his red jacket. Covering his hands was a pair of black leather gloves.

As he walked, he was muttering.

"Ugh, I hate deserts. They're nothing but sand. If there was some grass I could turn into bread…"

He flopped onto the sand.

"I'm starving" he whined, then he stood up and looked around. "Hey, Lee, where'd you go? Lee? Not again…!"

He seemed almost annoyed. Suddenly a giant, robotic hand reached up out of the sand and grabbed his ankle, as a voice said "Down here!"

The teen yelled and jumped in fright, then became angry. He grabbed the hand and pulled it up out of the sand, revealing a giant suit of armour that was dark grey in colour. On each of the shoulders was the same symbol that decorated the back of the teen's red jacket.

"I sunk again" said the armour.

"Reason number 2 why I hate deserts. I don't get how you keep falling in!" said the teen angrily.

"I'm sorry, Sal, but I keep filling up!"

Sal kicked the armour and it opened up, covering him with sand. Sal popped his head out of the newly formed sand dune and Lee began laughing.

Sal jumped out of the sand dune and started chasing Lee around.

"You come back here!" yelled Sal.

"What are you going to do to me!?" asked Lee with panic in his voice.

"Nothing!" yelled Sal in reply.

"Then why are you chasing me?"

"You'll find out if you stop!!"

"I promise I won't get buried again!"

"Not unless it's by me!"

"Sal!!!"

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Sal and Lee walked into a desert town almost an hour later.

"Are you okay, Brother?"

"If you'd stopped when I'd told you to…"

"Hey, you wouldn't have stopped if someone was chasing you"

"Shut up. I'm too tired to fight. And I'm thirsty"

Suddenly Sal looked up, listening.

"Do you hear that?"

Lee listened for a moment.

"It sounds like water"

Lee and Sal looked around and then saw a fountain. Sal shouted "Water!!!" and ran over, closely followed by Lee.

Sal looked into the fountain and his face fell.

"What is it? Blood?" asked Lee, looking at the deep red colour of the water.

"No, more like blood red wine" replied Sal, and suddenly a shop keeper grabbed them and dragged them away from the fountain.

"Hey! Just what do you think you're doing?!" said Sal angrily. "I was just looking for water!"

"Oh" said the shopkeeper, and he let go of them. "I thought you kids were trying to take a drink from the fountain. So do you want something to drink?"

Sal nodded, then looked over at the fountain as the shopkeeper poured a glass of orange juice for him. Sal turned around and began to slurp at the juice.

He got it down to half way before looking up and saying: "What kind of town has a fountain of wine? Pretty ritzy. This town must be loaded."

The man laughed.

"We do alright. Oh, time for a little soul food."

_All children of the Sun, let the light pour down and lift you out of the darkness. The light of Leto shall guide you to salvation. Pray and worship the sun and let miracles be bestowed. Life and Light fall hand-in-hand, and give each other to others. Let life and light be a part of all you are…_

Sal felt like puking at the drabble of this guy. This town was a big bunch of easily-to-impress idiots.

"Pretty freakish" muttered Sal.

"You're pal's wearing a suit of armour and you're wearing a pair gloves in the desert and you call us freaks?"

Sal laughed quietly.

"So, what's you two kids deal? You street performers?"

Sal accidentally slurped up his drink the wrong way at this statement and orange juice went everywhere.

"I don't think so pops! Do I look like a clown to you?!" said Sal angrily.

"Well, you must have some reason for coming out here"

"We're just trying to track something down. Anyway, who's this guy on your airwaves?"

"That's Sir Cornello"

"Hmm, doesn't ring a bell" said Sal off-handedly.

"WHAT?! You're telling me you've never heard of the great prophet Cornello?!"

"What's so great about him?"

A guy who was also at the shop walked over and said: "He can perform miracles for one thing. I've never seen anything like it!"

Another came over and said: "Yeah, our town was a god-forsaken dust ball before Cornello got here and turned it into a desert paradise"

Sal looked more than a little disorientated at this the way these guys were prattling on about him.

"Cornello can even forgive sins!

"Yeah! We're on the sun god's good side because of him! He gives us blessings!"

Sal raised his hands to his ears and said: "I just remembered, we have to be somewhere"

"Hey, you ready to split?" asked Sal.

"Yeah, okay" said Lee, nodding and Lee stood up. His head hit the shade of the shop and the radio got knocked off and broke.

"Oops!" said Lee.

"See, now look what you've done! Serves you right for wearing armour in the middle of the desert!"

"Don't bust a lung, Grandpa, we can fix it"

"How are you gonna do that? It's in a thousand pieces!"

"I'm sorry" said Lee. Sal was about to clap his hands together when Lee said "Let me try"

"Sure" replied Sal.

Lee picked up a stone and began to draw a complex circle.

"Hey, what's the drawing for?" asked the shopkeeper"

"You'll see in a minute" replied Sal. "It's called a transmutation circle"

"Okay, here goes" said Lee.

He placed the broken radio within the circle and placed his hands above it.

There was a flash of bright yellow light and smoke and suddenly the radio was back to normal, still blearing out Cornello's drabble.

People that were walking past stood and gaped at the work.

"It's really a land of prophets! Your buddy can work miracles like Cornello!" said the shopkeeper, staring at the radio.

"It's not miracles or anything like that" said Sal.

"It's a science, called alchemy" said Lee, picking up the previously broken radio and handing it to him.

"We're the Leonhart Brothers. Not to brag or anything but we're pretty well known"

"Leonharts? Not familiar"

"We don't have any alchemists in these parts"

"I fix things for a living though! Let me know if you need a job"

Sal grinned apprehensively.

Suddenly a woman said: "He doesn't need any work. That's Squall Leonhart, the Full Metal Alchemist. He's been a celebrity around East City"

Sal looked at the woman in surprise. Not many people used his full name these days.

"They say he's a real child prodigy"

Sal glared. He hated being called a child.

Everyone started crowding around Lee.

"Wow, a real life famous person" said one person.

"I see, they call you the Full Metal Alchemist cause of the armour you wear!"

"Hey, would you come to my daughters birthday party?" asked one man.

"Uh, I'm not the Full Metal Alchemist, he is!" said Lee, pointing at Sal.

"You mean that little shorty there?"

Sal's face turned into a look of complete fury.

Sal grabbed the two men and started swinging them around yelling: "SHORTY?! I'LL SHORTY YOU THIS!!!! WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANNA CALL ME, A HALF GROWN PEA MIDGET?!?!?!?! I'M STILL GROWING YOU BACKWATER DESERT IDIOTS!!!"

Suddenly a voice said: "I see there's plenty of excitement around here today"

"Ah, Rinoa!" said the shopkeeper. The girl he was talking to was wearing a periwinkle blue outfit. Her hair was deep black with two brown streaks, and her eyes were deep brown. She smiled at the shopkeeper when he said her name.

Sal and Lee looked a little shocked when she appeared. Sal and Lee just stared at her, Sal still holding the scruff of the two men's necks.

"Don't mind me, I'd hate to spoil all the fun" said Rinoa, smiling.

"That's okay. My name's Lake Leonhart" said Lee, bowing slightly.

Sal dropped the two men and used his thumb to point at himself.

"And I'm Squall, Lee's older brother, also known as the Full Metal Alchemist"

"Older brother? But shouldn't it be the other way around?" asked Rinoa, looking at how much taller Lee looked standing next to Sal.

Sal glared angrily and Lee said apprehensively: "Easy, Squall"

The shopkeeper laughed at the antics.

"Hey, Rinoa, have you finished your shopping for today's offering?" he asked.

"Yeah"

"Well, maybe you could take them to the temple with you. They say they're looking for something, maybe Father Cornello could help out, you know, have them ask for god's grace"

Sal put on a thinking look while Lee seemed apprehensive at the thought.

"No, that's okay, we don't really…" said Lee, but Rinoa cut him off by saying:   
"It's alright if you don't have an offering today. And besides, he has rooms for travelers. You could stay there tonight"

"Thanks but uh…" said Lee, and then Sal cut him off.

"As a matter of fact, we'd love to take you up on that, wouldn't we Lee?"

Lee looked shocked at this statement.

"We would?" asked Lee.

Sal nodded.

"You mean you want to?" said Lee, still not believing what he was hearing from his normally anti-social brother.

Sal nodded again.

The three began walking towards the temple, all of them silent. Suddenly Sal spoke.

"Lee, remember the woman at the shop? She knew me. Have we met her before?"

"No, I don't think so" replied Lee.

"You shouldn't worry" said Rinoa suddenly, turning around to the brothers. "I'm sure Cornello will help you find what your looking for. And besides, if you show him you're faithful I'm sure he could make you taller…."

Sal glared and Rinoa started running while laughing. He began to chase after her.

"What's wrong with you people?!?!?! I'm not short!!! You come from a desert tribe of giants or something!!!"

"Squall!" said Lee.

"You want some of this too?!?!?!" yelled Sal.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

"Choice words as usual, your holiness" said a man in black.

"Yes, Father, we'd be lost without you" said another.

Cornello looked up and smiled slightly to himself. He had all the inhabitants of this town under his influence.

"Father Cornello?" asked a voice.

Rinoa walked in.

"Ah, Rinoa" said Cornello, standing up.

"May I put some travelers in the pilgrims quarters?"

"Rinoa, you always delight in helping people, don't you?"

"That's what you teach us, Father Cornello, so that's what I do. Or, try to…"

Father Cornello walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"And God sees those good deeds and writes them all down in store. But you must be patient, Rinoa, we a little more time to grant the miracle you seek"

Rinoa looked at him for a moment, then hung her head.

"Yes…" she said sadly.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

"I talked to Rinoa" said Lee, looking down at the cemetery below there room. Sal was looking out the window, where Rinoa was standing in front of a grave.

"She said that was the grave of her boyfriend. He was all she had. Her parents died when she was still little. She's convinced that Cornello can bring him back to life"

"And he's leading her on, letting her think he can do it" said Sal.

"Well, maybe he can" said Lee. Sal's face turned into that of surprise, and he turned to look at Lee.

"What if really is a holy man? Those scriptures…maybe there is something else out there. Something we can't explain"

Sal continued to look at Lee, as if disbelieving his own brother's words. His face then turned into a look of determination.

"Don't count on it" he replied, looking out the window again to see Rinoa with two men standing behind her.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

There was a flash of light and the glass of water Cornello was holding suddenly turned into a glass of wine. The crowd below cheered.

He then went over to a long and there was another flash of light as it became a statue of the sun god. The people cheered hysterically.

"What do you think?" asked Sal.

"Well it looks pretty obvious. He's using alchemy" replied Lee.

"Yeah but still, something's wrong, it's not equal…"

"Hey guys!" said Rinoa, coming up to Lee and Sal. "How are you liking your first miracle gathering? He's amazing, isn't he?"

Sal folded his arms.

"Well, he's an amazing actor, I'll give him that. But those aren't miracles, he's using the entire town"

"Now Sal, we don't know that" said Lee, seeing Rinoa's shocked face. "We just know he's using alchemy, and that he's ignoring the laws"

"What laws?" asked Rinoa.

Sal jumped off the suitcase he'd been using to see higher and walked closer.

"This isn't witchcraft, it's a science. You don't make things out of nothing. In chemistry a reaction has to be balanced, and so does alchemy"

Rinoa looked shocked.

"It's an equation, Rinoa" said Lee. "The output has to be of the same mass as the materials you started with. The base elements also have to be similar. Like the radio I fixed. I couldn't make a bigger radio, or give it extra parts"

"It's our founding principal. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost" said Sal. "But that holy bastard's totally disregarding that law"

"Because he's working miracles!" shouted Rinoa.

As they were speaking, a little girl had gone to Cornello with her dead bird. He placed his hands over it, and there was a flash of light. The little bird came to life and started flying.

"What do you say now, Sal?" said Rinoa angrily. "I bet you can't do that with alchemy"

Rinoa couldn't see that Sal was smiling.

"It's a true miracle" she said, looking down. "It has to be"

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

"Squall Leonhart?"

"Yes Cray. Word has it that he was certified as a state alchemist when he was only twelve years old. They call him the Full Metal Alchemist"

"You sure it's him, Father?" asked Cray, looking slightly scared.

"I'm afraid so. The military they represent must have witnessed our paradise and decided to intervene. They are greedy, evil souls. We must save my children from them. Understand?"

"I will carry out the will of God" said Cray. He looked almost saddened.

"Your heavenly reward will be great, my dear Cray" said Cornello.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

"The boys presence troubles me. I don't like it" said the same voice that had declared Sal as the Full Metal Alchemist at the store.

"Don't worry. Even if Cray should fail, there is one other way"

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Rinoa was cleaning the altars in the prayer section of the temple. A giant statue of Leto towered to the roof.

"So, if you pray and polish the altar, someone who's dead will come back to life?" asked Sal, who was sitting in one of the many chair. Rinoa turned around.

"Something like that" she replied cheerfully.

Sal's eyes narrowed. He sighed and grabbed a book out of his jacket. He began to read aloud.

"Water 35 litres, Carbon 20 kilograms, Ammonia 4 litres, Lime 1.5 kilograms, Phosphorus 800 grams, Salt 250 grams, Saltpeter 100 grams, Sulphur 80 grams, Fluorine 7.5, Iron 5, Silicon 3 grams and trace amounts of fifteen other elements"

"What's that?" asked Rinoa.

"It's all the ingredients in an average human body, down to the last specks of protein in your eyelashes"

Sal shut the book and looked down.

"And even though science has given us the entire physical break-down, there has never been a successful attempt at bringing a human to life. There's still something missing. Something that scientists haven't been able to find out after centuries of research. So what's make you think that hack-job priest with his parlor tricks is going to be able to?"

Rinoa gave Sal a look of shock.

"And in case you were curious, Rinoa, all those ingredient can be bought on a child's allowance. Humans can be built cheap. There's no magic to it"

Rinoa's face was screwed up in a mix of determination, anger and shock.

"Well if there's no magic, then you bring someone back to life!" yelled Rinoa angrily.

"Just a matter of time, Rinoa, science will find a way. Science is the answer to everything. If I were you, I'd drop the scriptures and pick up an alchemy book" said Sal, standing up and walking towards the statue of Leto.

"We're the closest things to god there are"

"You're not a god. You're nothing close to it" said Rinoa, looking at Sal with loathing.

"And neither is the sun. It's just a mass of hydrogen. Get close to it like Cornello tells you to, and all you do is get turned into nothing. Zip. Burnt to a crispy little kebab… well, almost" replied Sal, clenching his right fist as he said it.

Rinoa looked hurt.

"Great Sal" muttered Lee, who'd been watching from around a corner. "Push your entire census onto someone else"

Suddenly someone grabbed him from behind.

"Don't worry, Leonhart. Your brother will join you soon"

There was a huge smash and the armour's head went flying. The body of the armour fell to the floor. Standing behind it was Cray, holding a gun.

"Cray! What are you doing?!" yelled Rinoa.

"These two are enemies of god. This is his will Rinoa, not mine"

Rinoa made a small sound of fear as Cray pointed the gun directly at Sal's head.

"I don't think so Mister" said a voice. Cray turned around to see a headless armoured body, standing up to him. He looked at in complete and total fear.

Sal picked up Lee's head and threw it at Cray. It him in the head, knocking him out, then into the air.

"I got it, I got it!" shouted Lee, and he caught his head.

"Strike!" said Sal, grinning.

Rinoa screamed in shock. Sal looked at her, forgetting that she wasn't used to empty talking suits of armour.

"He doesn't have a head!" she shouted.

"Yeah, that's Lee"

"Please don't be scared, Rinoa. This is how I am" said Lee, bending over and showing her that his armour was empty.

"You're not there"

"It's true, I don't have a body. This is my punishment for setting foot on holy ground, where mortals are forbidden"

Sal looked down, thinking of that night.

"We made a mistake, Rinoa. And we're paying for it"

Rinoa continued to look at him in fear.

She screamed again, and ran off.

"Rinoa, wait!" yelled Sal.

As Rinoa ran, she was thinking to herself.

"_I was right! They are evil! What have I done? They made me doubt you, Cornello. Forgive me, please!"_

Sal and Lee began to chase after her. They came to a big door.

"Here goes" said Sal, and he opened it up. It was completely dark.

"I can't see a church social down here, can you?" asked Sal.

Suddenly the lights came on. Rinoa was standing on a ledge just above them.

"There she is!" said Sal.

"You wrestled with the darkness and prevailed, Rinoa" said Cornello, walking to greet her. "Thank you for bringing them here"

Sal growled.

Cornello turned to face the two boys.

"State Alchemists, brutal enforcers. I had a feeling that one of you would show up someday"

"Let's not chock that up with pyist premonitions, okay?!" said Sal, putting his hand on his hip. "You knew we'd come for the Stone!"

Cornello held up his hand, were a ring set with a blood red stone sat.

"Do you mean this, young man?" asked Cornello.

Sal looked at it for a moment, then grinned.

"I knew it. Alchemy without a transmutation circle, completely ignoring the principal of equivalent exchange. It could only mean one thing!"

"Yes, the mythical gem, the legendary amplifier, The Philosophers Stone"

Sal's face became menacing, a grin playing across his face.

"That's it, Lee, it's ours" he whispered. "Cough it up, Cornello, give it up quietly and I won't tell the people about how marvelous your miracles truly are!"

"What's that, restoring there town to peace and prosperity? You know what would happen if my miraculous wonders suddenly stopped? Nobody wants that, do they, Rinoa?"

Sal's eyes narrowed in anger. Her face was still a look of shock.

"Don't listen to him, Rinoa! He's just a conman!"

"Nonsense. Would a conman restore life to a dying town? When I arrived this town was full of strife, and I brought peace. They came to me with parched throats and I created water. I built buildings for them and even gave them money. They thought that heaven had forsaken them but I gave them hope and became their prophet. Why does the military want to destroy all this?"

"I don't care what the military wants! I'm here for me!"

"What?" asked Cornello, shocked.

"I need that stone. We need it to make something the way it was before!"

"So that's it!" shouted Rinoa. Sal and Lee looked at her in shock. "This is all about you and what you want! What about us? You don't even care!"

"Rinoa, we're only trying to…" started Lee.

"It's no use" cut off Sal.

"There's no point in arguing!" cried Cornello. "If you want the Philosophers Stone you'll have to take it from me!"

The stone in the ring glowed brightly. Suddenly the floor of the room turned to sand. Lee was washed away with the sudden change of the floor.

"Lee!" cried Sal.

"Sal!!!"

"Hold on!" replied Sal, looking at Cornello. He'd started laughing.

"Armour is a disadvantage in soft sand. You can't draw transmutation circles in it, either!"

Sal glared at Cornello.

Suddenly Sal spotted a pair of glowing eyes. A large beast with the head of a lion and a long, scaly tail emerged, growling.

"That is a total abomination to that of lions" thought Sal.

"Allow me to introduce you to one of my finest creations. You of all people should be able to appreciate it… a chimera"

Sal looked at the half lion, half crocodile angrily.

"You combined animals, the most depraved kind of alchemy there is"

"Maybe so but it's most effective!" shouted Cornello as the chimera roared. It started running towards Sal.

"What an idiot" he muttered. He clapped his hands together and slammed them on to the sand. Blue light surrounded him, and a long sword with a gun in the hilt rose out of the sand. A winged, silver lion decorated the blade.

"Let me introduce you to me own weapon chimera, my Gunblade" said Sal, grinning.

"How did you do that without a transmutation circle?!" cried Cornello.

Sal ignored him, concentrating on the advancing chimera. He grabbed the hilt of the Gunblade and swung it right into the chimera's side, which made it fly across the room.

Cornello grinded his teeth and chucked the budgie on his shoulder into flight.

"Bring me his head, my pet!" cried Cornello, the blood red stone glowing again.

The bird turned into an enormous monstrosity and Sal readied his Gunblade. It flew at him and grabbed his Gunblade, snapping it.

"Hey! You bastard!" yelled Sal. He made to dodge out of the way, but the bird grabbed his left leg, clawing into it. Sal made a fake cry of pain. Cornello laughed while Rinoa looked on horror.

"Now snap it!" yelled Cornello.

Sal looked up, now grinning.

"Wrong leg, you overgrown disease bag"

The bird made a rip in his pants trying to break it and flew into the air.

"Here's the right arm!" yelled Sal, punching the bird in the face. It flew backwards through the air and into the sand. Cornello looked at him in shock.

Suddenly there was a roar and the chimera that Sal thought he'd defeated was charging him. It launched it self on him, and he screamed loudly.

Rinoa couldn't see what was going on behind the clouds of sand, but she knew it'd be bad. Cornello was grinning.

Suddenly there came funny rasping sounds from the lion, as if it was choking on something. The dust cleared, and Sal was standing stock still, with his whole right arm in the lions mouth. It was desperately try to eat it.

"What's the matter, you overgrown cat? Don't like the taste?"

Sal lifted his arm up higher, then brought his left leg around and kicked the lion as hard as he could. It flew into the air, torn pieces of Sal's shirt drifting down onto the floor.

"Mouth watering, hey Gluttony?" said a voice from high in the pillars, quiet enough so no one else heard it.

"That's impossible!" shouted Cornello. "Those claws on your leg, those teeth on your arm… no one could survive that!"

Sal just glared at him, knowing he'd get the picture soon. Well, he hoped the guy was intelligent enough to figure it out.

"Unless…ah, your limbs, they're fake!"

"Bingo, what a brilliant deduction" said Sal sarcastically, beginning to tear off the remnants of his red jacket.

"Oh god…" whispered Rinoa, looking as if she wanted to turn away.

"Don't look away, Rinoa. You need to see what happens when you try and revive the dead. When you cross into God's territory of whatever the hell it is! Is this what you want?! Look!"

Rinoa stared in fear and shock. Thoughts raced through her head.

"_His arm, his leg… they're machines!"_

"I see. Now I understand you, Leonhart" said Cornello. "You crossed the line, did what is strictly forbidden. You tried to create human life and your bodies were taken to the other side!"

"I told you, Rinoa. Get to close to the sun, and you burn" said Sal, looking at her.

"Correctly so, but you were crazy enough to find out for yourself! You are the Full Metal, the Full Metal Alchemist!"

"Are you really so thick that you have to repeat it to yourself, or are you actually trying to tell me that I'm the Full Metal Alchemist? Well I already know that. This guy is seriously the world's biggest dickwit" muttered Sal, shaking his head.


End file.
